Evaluation of molecular electronic devices using a two-tip scanning tunneling microscope

The size of electronic device continues to shrink as efforts to increase device speed push structural dimensions of components into the nanometer range. The ultimate endpoint of this evolution is an information processing technology based on molecular electronic devices. The past decade has seen much conceptual design work on proposed molecular electronic devices, and an increase in the ability of chemists of synthesize complicated organic molecules. We report on progress toward construction of a two-tip scanning tunneling microscope designed to test experimentally the electronic behavior of individual molecular electronic devices.